ediemac1

There was an issue with the Marriott Kensington at check-in. It's got my righteous indignation all in a tizzy! I am going to feed this back to the hotel, and to my corporate travel agency too. I reserved the night before my arrival at the Marriott Kensington so I could check in and go straight to my room when I got here. I arrived between 8 and 8:30am. I had no room. I was told they were full the night before and housekeeping wasn't finished. There were about 6 other folks checking in who all got the same story. So, Marriott decided to make a little extra money and sell all our rooms twice! I was offered a free breakfast (Which was continental, btw) and had to wait until 10 for my room. I was not happy. When I stated that I was sure they were NOT going to charge me for the previous night, I got a look of astonishment, a lot of stammering, and finally, an "I'll take care of it". Granted, Check-in is not until 3, but if I'd walked in off the street, they would have accomodated me at 10am. The point of the extra night is to have a room to go to upon arrival. My company does a lot of business with this hotel because of it's proximity to two of our UK locations. It's standard procedure for US employees to book a room for the night prior to arrival in order to check in at 8am. I know the travel agency informs the hotel of the late arrival issue, so they know they will have empty rooms. My issue is those rooms have been paid for!

Is it policy for Marriotts to sell the room again?

hhoope01

Normally in your type of situation I will call the hotel to let them know that I will be checking in (but that it may be early the next morning). That way they know and expect you.

But as for "double booking" a room, I don't know what the normal policy is, but it seems reasonable that if someone hasn't checked in by the next morning, the hotel may assume you aren't going to make it and sell the room to someone else.

socrates

if you do a search you'll find the exact answer (I'm going way back in my memory and could be off slightly) but I do believe rooms are only held until 6am the following morning at which point the reservation is cxl'd

craz

I fully understand this However I would expect the Hotel NOT to charge me for the room for the previous night, if in fact they did sell it, which from the OP wasnt gonna be what the Hotel was going to do if the OP didnt say something.

I usually would notify the Hotel of my early morning arrival ahead of time. I can understand if a person didnt do so that the hotel will figure them as a no-show, but if the hotel can and does sell that room then they shouldnt be charging anyone for the no-show

DesertFlier

If you reserved a room the night prior to arrival and did NOT check in and did NOT inform them that you would be arriving first thing in the morning, then I am sure they considered you a no-show and in that case, they would have every right to sell your room. Some hotels even would reserve the right to charge you the night as a penalty.

Point is - if you are not going to arrive the night of your reservation, then I don't understand how you could expect them to know you still planned on arriving at all? Sounds like your travel agency really dropped the ball and that is who you should have issue with - not the property.

VickiSoCal

according to the OP the travel agency did inform the hotel of the arrival time and they still didn not reserve a room for him/her. I'm betting the hotel was gambling they'd have an early checkout and get a room ready by 8 am, and make the extra $$ on that room.

craz

Sorry but I disagree with you. If the Hotel will charge me if I show or not, if I alerted them or not. Then a room should remain vacate no matter what. After all if Im gonna be charged then it shouldnt be resold to anyone else, unless the Hotel was gonna not charge me for it since they were able to sell it to someone else.

Here it seemed either the hotel thought even with the OP saying that they would be checking-in in the early morning that someone would have departed and they would have been able to get a room cleaned before the OP got there (but they didnt hav eany early enough check-outs) or they were hoping the OP would be delayed in arriving and again they would have had a room ready by the time the OP got there. Either way it was selling the same room twice for the same night. If an Airline does that they end up either VDBing someone or IDBing someone either way it will cost the Carrier. It seems here the Hotel didnt lose 1 cent and it should have. IMO its not enough they didnt charge the OP for the previous night and let them in when the room was ready, they should have given the OP and those others some extras as well.

deant

It would be very interesting to find out what time the rooms were given away. Since it was a guarantee, the OP should have been able to check in anytime. If the OP had arrived at midnight, would there have been a room available (which is absolutely allowed on a guaranteed room)? It appears that since the OP did not cancel his reservation, the reservation should have stood and the room should have been vacant. On this basis, I would claim that the "ultimate reservation guarantee" should be invoked.

Just my opinion.

hhoope01

The question then is the "charge" you receive as a no show, a charge for the room itself or a penalty charge for making a reservation and not showing up?

boltor

What time does it have to be before the no-show penalty gets triggered?

hhoope01

I would guess, based on socrates' post above, that if someone doesn't show up by 6:00am, the reservation is cancelled and they will be charged the no show fee.

socrates

That is the policy..if your room was sold you should not be charged

craz

Theres just 1 problem with this, you have to hope one is dealing with an honest Hotel. How so say Im a no-show for whatever reason and the Hotel does end selling all its rooms. Well if I never show up then the Hotel will know I have no way to know if they were able to sell my room or not, so I assume they will keep my $$ as well as the person they were able top sell the room to.

With the way most Hotels outright LIE about not having any type of an Upgraded room available , when in fact they do, I dont trust them to not charge me if they Double sell the room to another party.

ediemac1

Hi, all

A few more details may shed some light on why I was so annoyed.

This hotel is very close to my company's UK corporate headquarters. US employees give a lot of business to this hotel.

The only flight from my city to London is an overnight, arriving at 7am UK time.

My corporate travel agency DID confirm me for a late (post 6am) arrival. It is their usual practice and has worked flawlessly for me on multiple UK trips. While I did not confirm this directly with the hotel, I did confirm it with the travel agency.

There were 5 or 6 people from my company checking in at the same time as me. I know this because each desk clerk would announce "You have the <insert company name here> corporate rate" and I saw them on my flight. We were all without rooms upon arrival.

I was too tired to kick up much of a fuss until my desk clerk apologised because they were sold out the night before. It slowly dawned on me that they had multiple rooms with guests who would not be arriving until after 8am. They took a chance that they would have enough early check-outs to accomodate us.

They did not.

I still feel my company should not pay for the previous night's room. Marriott is double dipping.

craz

Not ONLY shouldnt any of you pay for the previous night even thou you all were able to get into a room before the offical 3pm checking time, but I feel the Hotel owes either each of you something extra for having rolled the dice and lost. Remember if they dont charge you but did get paid by those who were in the rooms, the Hotel didnt lose anything and will be inclined to continue said policy. It has to cost them enough so as not to repeat doing it.